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This may be a stretch, but the name of the character from Attack of the Clones, ELAN SLEAZEBAGGANO, (the underworld humanoid who tries to peddle his deathsticks to Obi-Wan on Coruscant) could be traced to the fact that he is an unsavory individual. Anyone who tries to sell any illicit even deadly substances for human gratification is a criminal, a low-life, a sleazebag if you will.

Now I don't want to jump to any conclusions but I think that is what the writers had in mind when they named this individual.

"The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see, the future is. But this I am sure of - do their duty the Jedi will." --Yoda from Attack of the Clones.

since so many of the other names are completely made-up, why does luke get a normal name?

The old story goes, since George Lucas was the creator, and he based many of the situations and themes on his own life, he was a young kid who loved fast cars and dreamed of ecaping his "place furthest from" the center of the universe (Modesto, CA). Therefore, Luke Skywalker, i.e. Luke S., is simply Lucas himself.

My own observations (see this thread) say that the "normal name" of Han Solo, is a combination of a Japanese term ("han" is a territory or country) and a simple term ("solo" meaning alone). Together, it's like the "no man is an island" cliche' and since Han seems to think he can do it all himself, without anyone else's help, it fits. But that's just my theory.

Originally posted by El ChuxterREE-YEES: play on "three eyes"

AMANAMAN: named after a name brand of hair dryer

I think you were beaten to those ones already.

Originally posted by Someone in a previous thread here at SSG4/13/00. Add two letters to Ree and rearrange Yees and you have Three Eyes.

Originally posted by Bel-Cam Jos (me! )4/19/02 Post # 32. HAN: Japanese term for a county or region of land, with boundaries. Combining it with "Solo" would make it either "land alone" or "one land." Perhaps like "no man is an island"?
7/10/02 Post #34. ANDAMAN (Amanaman?): name of an Indian Ocean island group. Marco Polo was the first European to visit them, and he called it "the land of the headhunters." Perhaps making up the phrase "A man, a man, and a man" sounded funny to Lucasfilm employees?

Re: Jabba's Skiff Guards

Looooooooooooooooooooooooong time between posts!

MANANNAN MAC LIR (Amanaman?): Irish sea god known as a trickster, he was a shape shifter who could assume different forms. Found out about him in Joseph Campbell's Creative Mythology, the last book in his Masks of God series. I just think the several ways "a man" could've been combined led to the yellow green lizard headhunter character from ROJ.

Re: Jabba's Skiff Guards

After doing a bit of research (internet and my own brain ), I found a bunch of possible name and word origins.

Padme - Lotus, "Om Mani Padme Hum" has no direct English translation, but often used as a guide is "Hail the jewel in the heart of lotus" or "Behold! The jewel in the lotus!"

Palpatine - Palatine - of or relating to a palace n 1: any of various important officials in ancient Rome 2: (medieval) the lord of a palatinate who exercised sovereign powers over his lands 3: the most important of the Seven Hills of ancient Rome; supposedly the location of the first settlement and the site of many imperial palaces

Jar Jar/Gungan - from Lucas' kids. Lucas had said that his son used to call trucks Gunga and his kids came up with the name Jar Jar Binks.

Jinn - there is the name of Jinn in the Planet Of The Apes novel. Was it a nod to that?

R2-D2 - Stood for Reel 2, Dialogue 2 on the film canisters

One website had many possible Hindu origins for the names. Not trying to get into anything religious, just pointing out more possibilities.

"Shmi" Skywalker - The mother of Anakin Skywalker, her name is widely accepted to be a halved version of "Lakshmi", who is the Consort of Lord Vishnu. Those who worship Lord Vishnu exclusively consider Lakshmi devi to have motherly "shakti" or potency, among a plethora of other potencies.

Padme - The woman who would eventually be the wife of the movie's protagonist Anakin Skywalker. "Padme" means "lotus flower" in Sanskrit, and is widely used in poetry and scripture.

King Varuna - A king of Padme's homeworld of Naboo, the name is obviously a tribute to Veruna, the demigod of oceans. Naboo has many attractive waterways, as can be seen in Episode 2 of the "Star Wars" films.

Gungans - The name of the race of aquatic, sentient beings that most movie fans have found annoying, their name is clearly derived from "Ganga", one of the seven holy rivers in India.

Shaak Ti - The name of a female Jedi master, a simple definition of the word shakti would be "energy" or "potency". When there is a personal embodiment of shakti, it is predominantly in a feminine form.

Depa Billaba - The name of another female Jedi master (played by an actress of Indian origin), who served on the "Jedi Council" in the prequel trilogy. Another transliteration of these two words would be "Deepa Ballabha", which means "the master of the light".

Yoda - I have saved the most interesting for the last. Various sources say "Yoda" is a derivation of the Japanese word "yodan", meaning "conclusion". We are also pointed to "Yodeah", a Hebrew word meaning "knows". The exact word "yoda" is found in Punjabi (sometimes presumed to be from Sanskrit) meaning "warrior". Interestingly enough, we do not see Yoda's warrior prowess until Star Wars: Episode 2. On a sidenote, the word "yoga" came to mind whenever I heard or thought of Yoda's name.

Mandalore - The planet where Jango Fett allegedly originated from, the origin is "Mandala", a symbol of Hindu origin.

The Rishi Maze - This is a part of space which is directly adjacent to the planet "Kamino", as Obi-Wan Kenobi is told. A "Rishi" is a very powerful sage of Vedic times, as has been explained earlier.

Padawan - This is a combination of two sanskrit words. "Pada" means foot, and "wan", actually spelled "van", means forest, in this case, it's related to the spiritual world. This is perceived to mean "a footstep in the forest". In other words, in the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Episode IV "You've taken your first step into a larger world"

[FONT=Book Antiqua]He passes to Moses - He shoots, he scores![/FONT]Mummy of the raincoat is a gigantic trollop. DOMINATE!

Re: Jabba's Skiff Guards

Here's the text of my SW name origin findings over the last 5+ years. It's a long Word document, so I'll split it up into a couple posts. Enjoy!

STAR WARS RESEARCH (Posted on sirstevesguide.com)

* = My research.
+ = Othersí research.

* 1138: I may have found something quite interesting, regarding 1138. In the book The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology by Joseph Campbell (pause for effect here), he mentions the motif of a number in a famous book that he is well-known for studying. Here's the footnote, after he quotes a Biblical verse: "Romans 11:32. This reference, by the way, is the secret sense of the number 1132 that occurs and recurs in all kinds of transformations throughout James Joyce's Finnegans Wake." Perhaps Lucas just changed the last digit to pay tribute to it. (9/19/03)

*AKBAR (Admiral Ackbar?): a king I think, thought it meant "great" or "honored" in Arabic. (1/14/00)
*AKBAR was a 16th century Muslim leader known for his military skills and dignified demeanor. (1/17/00)

*ANDAMAN (Amanaman?): name of an Indian Ocean island group. Marco Polo was the first European to visit them, and he called it "the land of the headhunters." Perhaps making up the phrase "A man, a man, and a man" sounded funny to Lucasfilm employees? (7/10/02)
*MANANNAN MAC LIR (Amanaman?): Irish sea god known as a trickster, he was a shape shifter who could assume different forms. Found out about him in Joseph Campbell's Creative Mythology, the last book in his Masks of God series. I just think the several ways "a man" could've been combined led to the yellow green lizard headhunter character from ROJ. (6/24/04)

AMIDA: an aspect of Japanese Buddhism, I think I recall it having something to do with goodness or light (easy to add a ''la'' to the end for Amidala). (6/27/00)
+I was thinking Amidala might have come from Dalai Lama. (6/27/00)

*I noticed that there are the Antilles Islands in the Caribbean Sea. (6/2/00)

*These terms all appear in a couple Isaac Asimov books, and seem to reflect what they are in the SW universe: GALACTIC EMPIRE and EMPEROR, the JUMP TO HYPER-SPACE, PARSEC, CREDIT, and STAR'S END. (8/3/00)

*BITHYNIA (Bith?): Region of Asia Minor (currently around Turkey) in the Roman Empire, known for its wealth and being able to resist Alexander the Great years earlier. Can't find any link to music or bald, fingernail-less people, though. (6/1/03)

*CAPE WESSEL (Zam Wessell?): city in Australia, in the Northern Territory. (7/10/02)

* CHIMATI NO KAMI (KAMINO?): This was the Japanese god of crossroads and footpaths, as well as the positive force of life and fertility. Kamino certainly is a place where life begins, as clones, and a type of crossroads in the Star Wars saga. (10/15/03)

*DAGOBAH: Heard someone from Sri Lanka mention it as a Buddhist or Hindu term. (1/14/00)
*DAGOBA: Receptacle of sacred relics or ashes in a Buddhist stupa (monument, temple). From Sanskrit dhatu-garbha or relic-receptacle. (1/30/02)

*All the ''Darth'' names are evil-sounding: Maul, Bane (poison, woe, harm), Sideous (insidious: treacherous, seductive, subtle). Except Vader ("father" in some European language; Norwegian??). I expect the new Sith Lord to reflect similar traits. (9/7/00)
+It's Swedish, I believe. I've heard that it's a direct bastardization of the German word for father as well, that ''father'' theory has been around for a LONG time now. (9/8/00)
+''Maul'' means to injure by beating. (9/7/00)

*DENGAR: a transposition of the letters ''E'' and ''A'' from ''danger.'' (11/25/00)

*In Hindu mythology, there is a serpent demon that is a monster that lives in a watery pit, or abyss. It's called a naga, and the word demon is spelled the "old" way: daemon. Put them together, and you get the daemon naga. Dianoga, perhaps? (9/19/02)

*DODONA (General Dodonna?): city in ancient Greece where an oracle of Zeus was located. (10/5/00)

+SLEAZEBAG (Elan Sleazebaggano) This may be a stretch, but the name of the character from Attack of the Clones, ELAN SLEAZEBAGGANO, (the underworld humanoid who tries to peddle his deathsticks to Obi-Wan on Coruscant) could be traced to the fact that he is an unsavory individual. Anyone who tries to sell any illicit even deadly substances for human gratification is a criminal, a low-life, a sleazebag if you will.
Now I don't want to jump to any conclusions but I think that is what the writers had in mind when they named this individual.(12/7/03)

+I remember that the quotation "Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink" originally came from a philosopher and/or scientist named Eisley. (4/13/00)
+Actually, "Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink" came from the epic poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge called "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" when the ship get stalled in the middle of the ocean for a long time. There's water everywhere, but it's saltwater and the crew cannot drink it. Classic poem. Absolutely incredible. (4/16/00)
+I know someone named Eisley said something about water... anyone else heard of this? (4/16/00)

*ENDOR: A witch of Endor was mentioned in the Bible (1 Samuel 29:7). And I found out Endor was "a place in the territory of Issachar near the scene of the great victory which was gained by Deborah and Barak over Sisera and Jabin" (Easton's Bible Dictionary). (2/7/00)

+Ephant Mon - Elephant Man? (6/14/00)

+4-LOM: for the love of money (3/31/01)

*FINN MacCOOL (Droopy McCool?): an Irish giant, a folk character. The book mentions him marrying a princess with the head of a pig (it'd kinda look like the Rebo Band member, eh?). Noticed in Joseph Campbellís Masks of God: Primitive Mythology book. (9/19/02)

*GALLI: priests of the goddess Cybele who wore female attire and had long hair, in a late Roman cult. Cybele's attendants were half-animal (Adi Gallia has that long squid tentacle hair). (6/28/00)

*GENESIS (Geonosis): planet from Star Trek movies that was originally barren and desolate but made new with the Genesis Device. The Clone War "began" on Geonosis, just like the Earth "began" in the book of the Bible "Genesis. (7/10/02) To amend this one, an issue of SW Insider had a LFL employee say that the root "geo-" meaning rock/earth was also a part. Obviously, the planet in AOTC was rocky. (6/23/03)

+If you'd like to see lots of references to Greek culture, check out the Jedi Apprentice series. For instance, there's two brothers named Guerra and Paxxi (War and Peace), as well as a villain named Xanatos (which, unless I'm wrong, means death). (4/13/00)

*"Gunga Din," a poem by Rudyard Kipling, is based on battles between the British and Indians (as in the country India) in the late19th-century. Gunga Din was a waterboy-type person who was insulted and mocked by the "better" British soldiers. This was also a film from 1939. Perhaps the Gungan name came from this, and it may explain why the Gungans (and Jar Jar in particular) are so disliked and underestimated. (2/20/00)
+If the theory about "Gungan" is correct, why does Lucas claim it is from his son's word for "machines"? (2/21/00)
*I certainly hope that this does not "prove" that E1 has racist undertones. In retrospect, the British in 19th century India are seen as oppressive and cruel, but at the time they were assumed to be noble and justified. In the book, it says that even the Naboo were distant from or mistreated the Gungans, not just the Trade Federation. These are just theories of course, but in "Gunga Din," the formerly-cruel and rude British soldiers are grateful for Din's help after they're injured. So maybe that's the comparison: loyalty and determination are rewarded in the end.

*HAN: Japanese term for a county or region of land, with boundaries. Combining it with "Solo" would make it either "land alone" or "one land." Perhaps like "no man is an island"? (4/19/02)

*HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN (Hermi Odle?): An organization that was founded in 1887 about occult and esoteric (hidden) knowledge. Joseph Campbell has mentioned the group in his works. The group seems to have nothing to do with the SW character, but perhaps the name was known to Lucas. (4/13/02)

*HOTH/HOD/HODER/HODR (Hoth): He goes by different names, but this blind Norse god of winter and darkness was tricked into killing his brother, Balder, by the trickster god, Loki. Well, being snowy, I'd say the planet Hoth had an appropriate name. And Leia (sort of in charge of the Rebellion, gets Luke to go out on patrol, almost killing him) is Luke's brother. (Okay, that last part's a strrrrrrrrreeeeeeeetttttch) (11/4/03)

*ISHI (Ishi Tib?): a Native American of the Yahi tribe found wandering in Northern California at the start of the 20th century. Ishi means "man" in Yahi. But I don't know where Tib might come from. (2/23/00)

*I stumbled onto this name while reading a book on lost African cities and societies, and trying to find it elsewhere I stumbled onto yet another that makes more sense.
*JABA: people of a village called Nok (where they would live in HUTS) near the Niger River. Excavations found a collection of terra cota (pottery) human heads, where one had a hairstyle in ''buns.'' Could this have been an influence on Leia? (11/2/00) But in another book, looking for the Jaba I found...
*JABBAREN: is Touareg for ''the giants.'' Those who spoke Touareg lived in the Sahara Desert near the Tassili area, a rocky, mountainous region about 1000 miles due north of the Nok region. In caves, archeologists found paintings of large alien-looking people (book said they looked like Martians) with big heads, horns, or bird heads, and there were dancers also depicted. I know Jabba the Hut was supposed to be a large, strange creature, so could Lucas have had these in mind? (11/2/00)